Doubts raised over Eastbourne pollution claims

Eastbourne Borough Council has raised doubts over the results of a recent report which claimed the town is among the UK’s most polluted places.

The report, released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) last Thursday (May 12), claimed that Eastbourne was among the top 10 most polluted towns and cities in the UK.

But the council says its own air quality tests show Eastbourne is well below both EU and UK air quality limits and has raised concerns about what data the WHO has used.

Council leader David Tutt said, “Eastbourne has consistently remained well below UK and EU air quality limits, recording levels at almost half the annual guideline of 40 micrograms per cubic metre (PM10), which is great news for the people visiting, living and working in Eastbourne.

“The latest assessment carried out in April 2016 confirmed this result based on the town’s two monitoring stations, one of which is part of a National DEFRA study for PM10 and PM2.5 levels.

“We are concerned with the WHO findings and are currently investigating the data they have used. However these are clearly based on a different set of objectives than those used by the UK or EU.

“Eastbourne Borough Council conducts yearly assessments of air quality to ensure we meet all of our air quality objectives.”

The WHO report claimed that out of all the towns and cities it tested, Eastbourne had the third worst readings for PM2.5 particles and seventh worst for the larger PM10 air pollutants.

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